Day #11: Fez Craftsmen (Saturday)
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Entrance to Medina (Old Fez) over 9000 alley ways
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On this day we tour the medieval medina (Old Fez) dating back to the 9thcentury. We start the day by trying to tell our guide what we would like to see or not like to see. He indicates agreement that he will follow our guidance but clearly he has a plan and it looks doubtful that he will deviate. I love this Arabic medina but find it is much more claustrophobic than our prior souks with its incredibly narrow alleys and uneven roofs all with TV antennas on them. You have to be sure to step aside for wagons being pulled by people or donkeys or horses or your feet will be crushed. It is definitely a maze of windowless walls, hundreds of craftsmen and you wonder what mysteries underlie these people’s lives.
We start by going to the Kairaouine Mosque, built by Tunisian refugees in the 9thcentury. Our guide gives us a lecture on how Morocco encourages knowledge and the importance of friendly coexistence between the different religious groups and how it is important to preserve every reality. He explains how this “rubbish” village of Fez has been turned into beauty. While I like the message of promoting diversity and wish we had such a message in America, his speech does not feel as genuine as the tile artisan who somehow portrayed the message more authentically with passion.
For the next 3 hours we walk through crowded alleys of artists carving wood and bronze, hearing the pounding of coppersmiths, and the sounds of sewing machines as tailors make clothes and watching the carpet weavers.
I try to take a picture of a butcher selling fermented goat heads but he is not happy about this so I move on wondering about what is done with these heads. At one store we see how bronze is etched painstakingly with a wooden hammer and how it will take 4 weeks to make the large platter the artist is working on.
We learn that “knock offs” of this work are made of brass that easily tarnishes, is designed with a press rather than individual carving and is not authentic Moroccan work. We learn that alpaca tea pots are made of silver, copper and tin. In this store are some amazing pieces of intricate pottery made of camel bone dyed with saffron and henna. I can’t imagine any of these beautiful things in our home and wonder who buys them. We begin to get a bit anxious because we are tired and still have not seen the tanners which I believe will be the most exciting part of the tour based on my memory of our prior visit to Fez.
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| Following our guide in black |
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| Horse navigating narrow streets |
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| Kairaouine Mosque |
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| Our guide who lectures without authenticity |
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I try to take a picture of a butcher selling fermented goat heads but he is not happy about this so I move on wondering about what is done with these heads. At one store we see how bronze is etched painstakingly with a wooden hammer and how it will take 4 weeks to make the large platter the artist is working on.
We learn that “knock offs” of this work are made of brass that easily tarnishes, is designed with a press rather than individual carving and is not authentic Moroccan work. We learn that alpaca tea pots are made of silver, copper and tin. In this store are some amazing pieces of intricate pottery made of camel bone dyed with saffron and henna. I can’t imagine any of these beautiful things in our home and wonder who buys them. We begin to get a bit anxious because we are tired and still have not seen the tanners which I believe will be the most exciting part of the tour based on my memory of our prior visit to Fez.
One lovely serendipitous event was stopping at a preschool where the teacher leads the small classroom of 6 children singing “twinkle twinkle little star” to us.
It is hard to imagine our preschoolers sitting in desks in a tiny room like this for even an hour. I wonder where they would get any physical activity. I wish I had time to talk with the teacher about her curriculum but our guide drives us onward. Nonetheless the children seem healthy and happy.
It is hard to imagine our preschoolers sitting in desks in a tiny room like this for even an hour. I wonder where they would get any physical activity. I wish I had time to talk with the teacher about her curriculum but our guide drives us onward. Nonetheless the children seem healthy and happy.
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| Preschool and teacher |
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| John considers a new hair style but elects to change his hat style |
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